Book•
The Archaeology of Ethnicity: Constructing Identities in the Past and Present
01 Jan 1997-
TL;DR: Sian Jones as mentioned in this paper argues for a fundamentally different view of ethnicity, as a complex dynamic form of identification, requiring radical changes in archaeological analysis and interpretation, and presents a comprehensive and critical synthesis of recent theories of ethnicity in the human sciences.
Abstract: The question of ethnicity is highly controversial in contemporary archaeology. Indigenous and nationalist claims to territory, often rely on reconstructions of the past based on the traditional identification of 'cultures' from archaeological remains. Sian Jones responds to the need for a reassessment of the ways in which social groups are identified in the archaeological record, with a comprehensive and critical synthesis of recent theories of ethnicity in the human sciences. In doing so, she argues for a fundamentally different view of ethnicity, as a complex dynamic form of identification, requiring radical changes in archaeological analysis and interpretation.
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01 Jan 2015
25 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: The authors employed an integrated approach of the historical and archaeological evidence relevant to the study of the Xiongnu empire (3rd century BC - 1st century AD) in an attempt to construct new contexts of understanding the political strategies for securing and ensuring power, legitimacy, and authority in the steppes.
Abstract: This thesis employs an integrated approach of the historical and archaeological evidence relevant to the study of the Xiongnu empire (3rd century BC – 1st century AD) in an attempt to construct new contexts of understanding the political strategies for securing and ensuring power, legitimacy, and authority in the steppes. I have relied upon the full corpus of Chinese records which address the Xiongnu entity, synthesized the entirety of excavated materials in China, South Siberia, and Mongolia which relate to the Xiongnu phenomenon, and incorporated new survey and excavation data from two regions of the Xiongnu empire. Through the course of the dissertation, I utilize a paradigm of imperial strategies, rather than typologies of imperial polities, in order to provide a less restrictive manner of reconstructing the power politics of the steppe empire. A diachronic consideration of the combined textual narratives and archaeological materials exhibits two distinct periods of the Xiongnu polity. This dissertation focuses on the shifts between these two periods and the resulting new traditions that sought to distinguish and elevate restricted ranks of the imperial élite and assert a cosmopolitan culture of steppe empire that together would ensure authority and control both within the empire and toward its neighbors. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group East Asian Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Paul R. Goldin Second Advisor Victor H. Mair Third Advisor Bryan K. Hanks
25 citations
28 Jun 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the findings of a survey undertaken to comprehend the factors that have enabled a group of around 350 Burushos to maintain their ethnic identity including their language after 125 years of their immigration to Kashmir in Jammu and Kashmir State of India.
Abstract: The study reports the findings of a survey undertaken to comprehend the factors that have enabled a group of around 350 Burushos to maintain their ethnic identity including their language after 125 years of their immigration to Kashmir in Jammu and Kashmir State of India. The group has been able to resist the assimilatory forces and has maintained itself as a distinct entity vis-a-vis the dominant Kashmiri host society. The study has drawn upon the empirical tool of ethnolinguistic vitality as a reflection of the group’s sustainability as a collective entity in terms of their ethnic as well as linguistic identity. The study also reveals the attitude of native Kashmiris towards the group as perceived by group members. This perceived attitude of the group members has been explained in terms of its bearing on the vitality and identity of the group. The study is based on 50 semi-structured questionnaires and four unstructured interviews. The questionnaire has been partly developed on the basis of six factors identified by UNESCO (2003) in the evaluation of ethnolinguistic vitality. The paper concludes that an ethnically small immigrant group can survive the assimilatory forces and maintain their ethnic identity even if the ethnolinguistic vitality of the group is quite low on most of the measurable factors.
24 citations
Book Chapter•
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: For most of the first century of Minoan archaeology, a reconstruction of the political structure of palatial period Crete, structured around the three major palaces identified at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia, was universally accepted as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: For most of the first century of Minoan archaeology, a reconstruction of the political structure of palatial period Crete, structured around the three major palaces identified at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia, was universally accepted. This picture became naturalised, generating the expectation that the agrarian Minoan states were necessarily centred on the major lowland basins, in what are today prime agricultural zones (e.g. Renfrew 1972: fig. 14.4). This led to the further expectation that additional palace centres might be discovered in only a few comparable locations, such as the major coastal plains near the medieval and modern centres of Rethymnon and Khania in the archaeologically under-explored west of the island (e.g. Younger and Rehak 2008a: 150; 2008b: 178). Anomalies to these expectations were explained as subordinate centres (Haghia Triadha, Gournia), or exceptional (Zakros) (e.g. Warren 1985: 74; Younger and Rehak 2008a: 150-2).
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors locate in the emergence and elaboration of Sardinia's Nuragic society, a narrative of cultural identity formation, and argue that the history of the Nuragic identity is implicated in social development on Sardinia in the second millennium BC.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to locate in the emergence and elaboration of Sardinia's Nuragic society, a narrative of cultural identity formation. The Nuragic period is typically defined in terms of economic, social, and demographic characteristics, and a Nuragic identity is implicitly taken to be a passive byproduct of these material circumstances. Such an account overlooks the role of identity in enabling and characterizing human action. The disjointed and contradictory Nuragic period transition preceded the formation of a coherent cultural identity. This identity, it will be argued, underwent a retrospective rearticulation to establish a distinct boundary between the Nuragic society and its antecedents. The material record illustrates clearly that the history of the Nuragic identity is implicated in social development on Sardinia in the second millennium BC.
24 citations